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The family of 50-year-old Damon Scott Stern Sr., also known as DJ Nomad, along with their attorney held a press conference on Thursday, Sept. 19. During the conference they shared videos from the body cameras worn by the two officers called to Stern's home in the 400 block of Windsor Street, Reading at 3:37 a.m. on Monday, March 25.
The Air Force Veteran was having suicidal thoughts and was holding a knife, according to the family and as Daily Voice previously reported.
Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams ruled that the two officers who shot Stern were "justified," according to a release on Thursday, April 18, as Daily Voice reported at the time.
The family chose to release the police body camera footage as their wrongful death lawsuit advances, Attorneys Shaka Johnson and Kevin O’Brien told Daily Voice on Wednesday, Sept. 18.
Click the players below to see the videos.
**WARNING THE FOLLOWING VIDEOS ARE GRAPHIC**
**WARNING THE ABOVE VIDEOS ARE GRAPHIC**
When the door opens Stern's wife is heard saying "he's got a knife, I think he's going to hurt himself." A dog comes out next, then Stern comes with the knife vertical with the tip towards the sky. This is where the videos appear to contradict the DA and police statements, as Stern did not raise "the knife to the level of his head with the tip of the knife pointed at them," as written in the release in April. Also, the TASER device the second officer was holding seems to have been discharged after the officer shot Stern, meaning the police used deadly force first.
In the weeks since the shooting, the officer who fired the shots has been lauded by the DA for not only saving his own life but protecting "the lives of the other officer and the complainant."
But the video shows the Stern's wife Carmen calmly asking her husband to put the knife down, the officer slightly taps her right arm for her to move, and she is heard saying "don't shoot." It didn't appear that she felt she was in danger but was only concerned about Stern who was suicidal. She later explained she thought they would use a TASER device first.
Following the shooting, the police radioed for EMS and provided Stern medical care until they arrived, according to the release. Stern was taken to Tower Health–Reading Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
There has been an outcry of a lack of justice and accountability in the slaying of Stern. His community even held a protest outside the courthouse on April 9.
The DA's ruling was based on state law on the use of “Deadly Force” which is defined as “force which, under the circumstances in which it is used, is readily capable of causing death or serious bodily injury” citing 18 Pa.C.S.A. Section 501.
He concluded, "The District Attorney’s Office will take no further action in this matter."
Daily Voice has reached out to the DA's office and the family's attorney for additional statements.
The DA emailed us:
"We have no new comment on this shooting. We would just reiterate our prior statement and ruling regarding the shooting."
The family released the following statement, reading in full:
"Damon Stern was an Air Force veteran, a husband, father, long-time employee of East Penn Manufacturing, and a law abiding member of the Reading community. These are good and decent people who respect the police and follow the law.In the morning hours of March 25th after his birthday and wedding anniversary he became depressed and his wife Carmen called the Reading Police for help out of concern he was going to harm himself.The body camera footage reveals inconsistencies between the police narrative that Damon attacked the police with a knife, and that police were protecting his wife from him in some way. The footage shows that Carmen was not a complainant, she a wife concerned about her husband. She called the Reading Police for help, told them he was suicidal, and even warned that he had a knife and he wanted them the shoot him. Instead of providing the help she called for, the Reading Police approached the home and shot her husband dead within seconds right in front of her. That was not the help she called for and not the help they needed.When she need their help the most, the Reading Police failed Carmen Stern and her husband Damon. They both deserved better.”
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